Walter Forward was an American lawyer and politician, who served as Secretary of the Treasury, Chargé d’Affaires to Denmark, and president judge of the district court of Allegheny County.
Background
Walter Forward was born on January 24, 1786, at Old Granby (now East Granby), Connecticut, the son of Samuel Forward and Susannah Holcombe.
When he was fourteen years of age, his parents moved to a farm near Aurora, Ohio.
Education
After working with his father for three years, Forward left home without money, and made his way to Pittsburgh, then a town of fewer than 5, 000 inhabitants, to begin the study of law.
By the merest accident, he secured employment and the opportunity to study in the office of Henry Baldwin, one of the best-known attorneys in Pennsylvania and subsequently associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. Among his other duties Forward edited for Baldwin for several years the Tree of Liberty, a Democratic paper of wide circulation and influence.
Career
So rapidly did his legal work progress that Forward was admitted to the bar in 1806, and soon established an enviable record as a trial lawyer. After a creditable tenure in the state legislature, Forward was chosen at a special election, December 2, 1822, to take the place of Henry Baldwin who had resigned his seat in Congress and he was reelected to the following Congress, serving until March 4, 1825. Both in the committee on manufactures and on the floor of the House, he advocated the enactment of a high protective tariff, a policy which he vigorously upheld during the remainder of his life. He failed of reelection to the Nineteenth Congress.
In 1824, Forward attended the congressional caucus (the last of its kind ever held) which nominated William H. Crawford for the presidency; but as a protest against this method of nomination, he gave his support to Andrew Jackson in the campaign. Four years later, however, he definitely allied himself with the National Republicans.
In 1830, he was a delegate to the general convention of the National Republicans at Baltimore; and in 1834 he played an important part in the formation of the Whig party. He was an outstanding member of the Pennsylvania constitutional convention of 1837 - 1838. Among other things, he advocated suitable provisions for the education of the poor at public expense. Partly as a reward for his services in the campaign of 1840, President Harrison appointed Forward district attorney for the western district of Pennsylvania. Upon declining to accept this position he was named the first comptroller of the currency.
Following the death of President Harrison and John Tyler’s accession to the presidency, Forward was appointed secretary of the treasury in the reorganized cabinet. Although embarrassed in many ways by the deflection of the Whig leaders from Tyler and by his own repeated disagreement with the policies of his chief, he continued in office until February 28, 1843, when he resigned to resume the practise of law.
With the return of the Whigs to power in 1849 under President Zachary Taylor, he was appointed November 8, 1849, charge d’affaires to Denmark. After spending two years at Copenhagen, he returned to Pittsburgh to become president judge of the district court of Allegheny County. Walter Forward died on November 24, 1852, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and was interred in Allegheny Cemetery, Pittsburgh.
Walter Forward was an active member of the Methodist Church.
Politics
In 1822, Walter Forward was elected as a Republican to the Seventeenth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Henry Baldwin and reelected as a Jackson Republican to the Eighteenth Congress, serving until 1824. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1824 to the 19th Congress.
Forward was a member of the Pennsylvania constitutional convention in 1837 and played an important role in the establishment of the United States Whig Party in the 1830s.
Views
Walter Forward was a lifelong advocate of internal improvements.
Membership
Walter Forward was one of the founders of the Pittsburgh Philosophical and Philological Society.
Connections
On January 31, 1808, Walter Forward married Henrietta Barclay of Greensburg, Pennsylvania.